National Hurricane Center

People who live along the U.S. East Coast from North Carolina up to New England should monitor Hurricane Jose, forecasters say. The storm's winds won't get close to land until Sunday or Monday — but it was formally declared a hurricane again on Friday afternoon.

Hurricane Irma strengthened to 120 mph sustained winds by the 8 a.m. Monday morning advisory. The Category 3 storm is expected to get more muscular throughout Tuesday and Monday, as it edges toward the Caribbean.

Hurricane watches were posted for Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saba, St. Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy, which could start to see hurricane and tropical storm conditions by late Tuesday.

The Florida governor, Rick Scott, declared state of emergency for more than half of the counties of the state as tropical storm Colin landed in the Big Bend area

. According to the latest National Hurricane Center (NHC) advisory, issued at 8 am, Colin is still moving in a northeast trajectory with sustained winds of 50 mph. The Tropical Storm was discontinued for the northern part of Florida but it is still in place for parts of Georgia and North Carolina.

Hurricane season began early this year, with Tropical Storm Ana edging along the coast of the Carolinas over the weekend. Which means hurricane-hunter aircraft were already at work, even before some of the fleet had finished its annual awareness tour of the Atlantic coast.

It’s hard to be a fan of hurricanes. Two out of three Haitians don’t have enough food to eat these days – thanks largely to storms like last year’s Hurricane Sandy and how they’ve ravaged Haiti’s agriculture.

And yet we need hurricanes once in a while. They’re a sort of planetary thermostat that cools oceans and redistributes hot air. Their rains more effectively alleviate droughts, and that can be a help instead of a horror to impoverished countries like Haiti.

Tropical Storm Sandy is expected to bring wind and rain to South Florida Thursday and Friday as it tracks north toward the Bahamas through Jamaica and Cuba. A tropical storm watch is already in effect from Jupiter Inlet south to the Florida Keys. Get the latest update from the National Hurricane Center.